Typically, to prepare coffee using a French press, also called a press pot or coffee press, multiple receptacles are used during the process. First, the coffee is ground in a one receptacle using a grinding instrument until the coffee beans are in a coarse ground state. Then the coffee grounds are transferred from the grinding receptacle into a different receptacle for steeping, often a type of beaker. Hot water is added to the beaker and the coffee grounds are stirred for a brief period of time. The coffee grounds steep in the hot water, creating a coffee slurry. After steeping, the user places a fitted cover over the beaker top. This cover is outfitted with a plunger and filter unit. The user depresses the plunger, which moves the filter from the top of the beaker to the bottom of the beaker, thereby trapping the solid coffee grounds of the slurry at the bottom of the beaker and leaving the drinkable liquid coffee portion on top. The user can then transfer the drinkable portion to another receptacle for drinking, and discards the coffee slurry left in the beaker. Although French presses are typically used for coffee, they are also used to create other beverages such as teas.
French presses are well known in the art, and there have been a wide variety of types of French presses and methods of using French presses to brew coffee and tea. In one example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,233, “Methods for Preparing a Coffee, Tea or Milk Beverage,” Levinson teaches separating the plunger-strainer of the French press coffee maker into a plunger member and a contiguous filter member. In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,852, “A Coffee/Tea, Table Blender and Microwave Oven Apparatus and methods for Its Use,” Levinson also teaches a user to combine the utility of a conventional blender and microwave oven to make coffee. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/980,165, “French Press Coffee Maker with Spent Grounds Removal,” teaches another example of device and method to remove coffee grounds from a French press container. However, these devices and others still require the transfer of coffee grounds from one container to another. The prior art reveals that multiple devices are needed in order to grind, brew, filter, and drink coffee. The need for multiple devices devices to get from whole coffee beans to a drinkable beverage makes it cumbersome for a coffee drinker to quickly prepare a freshly brewed cup of coffee.
Therefore, there remains a need for simplified devices and methods to grind, brew, and filter coffee.